assumptions. United’s estimates of its future payments
 under all of the CPAs do not include the portion of the underlying
 obligation for any aircraft leased to a regional carrier or deemed
 to be leased from other regional carriers and facility rent that
 are disclosed as part of aircraft and nonaircraft operating
 leases. For purposes of calculating these estimates, we have
 assumed (1) the number of block hours flown is based on our
 anticipated level of flight activity or at any contractual minimum
 utilization levels if applicable, whichever is higher,
 (2) that we will reduce the fleet as rapidly as contractually
 allowed under each CPA, (3) that aircraft utilization, stage
 length and load factors will remain constant, (4) that each
 carrier’s operational performance will remain at historic
 levels and (5) an annual projected inflation rate. These
 amounts exclude variable pass-through costs such as fuel and
 landing fees, among others. Based on these assumptions as of
 December 31, 2016, our future payments through the end of the
 terms of our CPAs are presented in the table below (in
 billions):